Among the first animals ever domesticated, bred from the wild mouflon of Southwest Asia. Sheep gave pastoral peoples a walking supply of wool, milk and meat that could thrive on land too poor for crops, and wool became one of the founding commodities of international trade, from Mesopotamia to the medieval English economy. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Scientific Name Domestication RegionFertile Crescent, Southwest Asia 1 Domesticated When (Circa)circa 9000 to 8500 BC from the mouflon 1 Primary Uses Era
Era (category) Sheep
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The barber pole worm (Haemonchus contortus) is the most economically significant gastrointestinal parasite of sheep.
Bluetongue, a midge-borne Orbivirus disease, causes its most severe clinical disease in sheep.
This milestone records the domestication event of the sheep it is directly named for.
The liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) is a classic and economically significant parasite of grazing sheep.
The Old World screwworm fly is a major cause of traumatic myiasis in sheep across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
A core grazing animal the discipline manages rangeland forage for
Source Rangeland Management (Wikipedia)
Scrapie is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of sheep, the first prion disease described.
Bakewell's New Leicester (Dishley Leicester) sheep is the founding example of systematic selective breeding for meat conformation.
Source Selective Breeding (Wikipedia)
the mechanical shearing machine removes wool from sheep
Sheep scab (Psoroptes ovis mites) is a major welfare-significant skin disease of sheep flocks.
Transhumance, Practices A classic transhumant animal in Alpine, Mediterranean and Central Asian herding
Source Transhumance (Wikipedia)
the wool press compacts sheared sheep wool into bales for shipment
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1. Sheep (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and Asia, with Iran being a geographic envelope of the domestication center.
History section
The date of domestication is estimated to fall between 11,000 and 9000 BC in Mesopotamia.
View the Source Selective Breeding (Wikipedia)
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